[thelist] Dealing with clients and design issues (was Re: Should yougo against your Client?)

[Andy Budd]

My original post was essentially about making sure you involve the 
client in an area where they have the expertise and can provide useful 
and productive feedback. Ask them about their goals, their clients, 
their competition. Don't worry them with small trifling details that 
they really don't need to be consulted on.

However problems occur when you don't engage your clients in the "big 
questions" and only allow them to get in involved with the small 
questions.

At the end of the day, clients will react to what you present them and 
how you present it. If you present a design and simply ask what they 
think, they are likely to comment on the more obvious aspects like 
colour and layout. This is basically because everybody has their own 
personal tastes and design is something most people feel they are 
qualified to comment on. One problem is trying to explain to clients 
the essentially everybody has different tastes and you're designing the 
site for a broad range of people, and not just the end client/board.

However if you give the rational behind your decisions, and try to 
focus the clients attention on more strategic and less aesthetic 
considerations you will probably have much more luck.

One problem designers often have is creating a number of designs but 
having a favorite design. Only show clients designs you are confident 
in and would be happy to build. There is nothing worse than coming up 
with 2 killer designs and one filler design, only to have the client 
pick the filler.

At the end of the day it's about the route you take with a client. If 
you are the kind of designer who gets a brief and immediately opens up 
photoshop, it's probably no wonder that clients focus on the visual 
aspect of the design. However if you spend a lot of time planning and 
working out the site strategy and content, there is much less chance 
you'll end up arguing over small details.

And